Figuring It Out

It's been a bit of a mellow fall. I had big plans to go back to Flagstaff and re-race the Barnburner 100, but that race got cancelled a few days before it happened. Too much water on the roads in the area of the race in Flagstaff and the Forest Service pulled their permit. It was probably good, my weight was down to about 155 or so after the Divide and I felt a little beat up by it ... someone said it could take 2 to 6 months to recover from something like that ( seemed a little long, but there isn't a lot of data on this).

I went down to Cochise County for the Cochise County Cycling Classic in October, and did the 165 mile ride. Was lucky to have Lauren and Margie doing SAG for me, and they were AWESOME ! It was a really good day, a little bit of breeze, but not too much and my time was comparable to last year's about 10 hrs and 10 minutes. I won the old man trophy ( oldest finisher .. ha ha ).

Then back home and started riding the road bike a little bit for El Tour de Tucson. Finished that a couple of days ago with a 5 hr 52 min time, again about the same as last year. I really should have lined up earlier, it seemed like I must have passed a thousand riders, but there were still 800 or so ahead of me !

So that kinda finishes the whole bike thing for the year and I am trying to figure out what to do for next year. There are lots of choices and I need some good challenges, am too afraid of just sitting around and doing nothing.

Some possibilities I am entertaining:

Enter the lottery in December for the Leadville 100 MTB, held at 10000 zillion feet in Colorado. That race happens in August.

I am signed up to do a lap or maybe two for 24 Hours in the Old Pueblo the weekend of Feb 12, but it's the same weekend as Stagecoach 400 and I would kinda like to go back and knock some time off my last year's time

Then, I've been looking at the AZ Trail 300 and 750 race, happening April 15.  The 300 looks just butt kicking hard and the 750 only layers it on. I "think" if I can get to Picketpost, finishing the 300, then I can do the 750, but nervous about the single track between Summerhaven and Picketpost.

A little race called the Silver State 508 where you ride across half of Nevada and back in 48 hours on a road bike.

And then, there's the Divide. To go back as a 66 yr old and knock a few days off last year, would be pretty nice.